“The Day I Started Traveling Without Moving”

When Wanderlust Begins Before Your First Passport Stamp

People often assume travel begins with your first flight, your first visa, or that one life changing trip. For me, it began much earlier, in a small classroom in Morak, Rajasthan, sometime in the late 1980s.

One day, when a teacher did not show up, my restless classmates shouted, “Shiju, sing an English song!”

The funny part? I barely knew English.

My so called English medium school was English mostly on the signboard, and like many small town Indian kids, we learned through determination rather than perfection. Looking back, I realise those songs were never just entertainment. They were possibility. They were my first glimpse into a world far bigger than my own.

I would sit glued to Doordarshan’s Pop Time, listening to English songs on the radio, often not understanding every word, but feeling every emotion. Michael Jackson, Bryan Adams, Sting, George Michael,. They became windows into places I had never seen, cultures I could barely imagine, and lives that felt impossibly distant from a small-town boy in Rajasthan.

Long before I held a passport, my mind had already started travelling. That is how many dreams begin.

Not with resources. Not with a clear plan. Not even with understanding.

Just with fascination.

So many people wait until life is perfectly aligned before allowing themselves to dream. But growth rarely works that way. Sometimes your heart sees the destination long before your mind knows how to get there.

The Lost Mumbaikar says:

“Sometimes the most important journeys begin long before your first passport stamp”.

 

 

Curiosity Is the Most Powerful Ticket You Will Ever Own

If I trace this journey back to its real beginning, I always arrive at my father.

A simple man with modest means but extraordinary curiosity.

He may never have travelled the world, but through books, magazines, and radio, he quietly brought the world into our home.

Every year, the Manorama Yearbook arrived like treasure. Filled with maps, countries, flags, history, and possibility. India Today, Sports Star, old magazines from the recreation club, anything that carried stories from beyond our small town became my passport.

That is where the dream truly began.

Long before Google, YouTube, travel influencers, or endless online inspiration, curiosity was my internet. And that lesson has stayed with me all my life.

Too many people postpone ambition because they think they need money, connections, perfect timing, or someone else’s approval.

But personal growth does not begin with resources. It begins with curiosity.

Curiosity is what makes someone ask better questions. Curiosity is what pushes ordinary people into extraordinary spaces. Curiosity is what separates those who wait from those who evolve.

My father may not have been able to hand me the world. But he gave me something far more powerful. The hunger to imagine it.

The Lost Mumbaikar says:

“You do not need wealth to begin dreaming. You need curiosity strong enough to outgrow your circumstances”.

 

Dreams Become Reality When Curiosity Meets Courage

As a child, I did not know the word manifestation.

But I was already practising it.

While listening to songs I barely understood, I imagined myself in those cities. Walking unfamiliar streets. Speaking to strangers. Living a life much bigger than the one around me.

That childhood imagination eventually became reality. Not because life magically arranged itself. But because dreams demand more than desire. They demand effort. Persistence. Resilience. Faith. Action.

Today, after travelling across more than 90 countries, from Iceland’s frozen highways to Norway’s midnight sun, from Cuban road adventures to forgotten Balkan villages, I often think about that little boy singing nonsense English lyrics with complete confidence.

He had no roadmap. No privilege. No certainty. Only imagination.

And sometimes, that is enough to begin.

Because success, whether in business, leadership, or life, is not measured by salary slips or job titles. It is measured by the courage to pursue what once felt impossible.

Your circumstances may explain your beginning. But they do not define your destination. If there is one lesson this story carries, it is this.

Dream boldly. Stay curious. Act relentlessly.

Because the life you imagine today may one day become the story you tell.

 

The Lost Mumbaikar says:

“Manifestation is not about wishing harder. It is about dreaming clearly, believing deeply, and moving courageously”

 

Before you leave, let me ask you something.

• What first made you dream bigger than your circumstances?
• Was it a song, a book, a teacher, a movie, or a quiet moment that stayed with you longer than it should have?
• What childhood curiosity did you once carry so naturally, but perhaps set aside as life became more practical?
• And most importantly…Are you still honouring that dream?